Dental healthcare has close relation with people's eating hygiene and good living quality of senior years. The advancement of healthcare industry and many hygiene and health-related promotion campaigns have drawn people's attention to dental healthcare. While teeth cleaning with a toothbrush, dental floss or inter-dental brushes provides preventive effect on dental problems, regular oral cavity examinations can follow up any change in dental structures to discover oral cavity-related problems as early as possible. Further, correction of malpositioned teeth or jaws can improve a person's facial appearance, and people having even white teeth give others better impression of them. Most people can get convenient dental examinations at small-scaled dental clinics everywhere.
To have a clear idea about a patient's existing dental structure, a dentist at the dental clinic would usually use oral and dental imaging equipment to capture images of the patient's all or some specific teeth, and evaluates the patient's teeth condition based on the captured dental images to facilitate an accurate decision for subsequent dental surgery or correction. The oral and dental imaging equipment includes two main types, a first one of which requires the positioning of a small piece of x-ray film in the patient's oral cavity to help dental radiographic imaging. The other type of oral and dental imaging equipment does not require an x-ray film. The widely available x-ray films can be divided into two major types, namely, a physical x-ray film and a digital image sensor. In the process of dental radiographic imaging, the physical x-ray film is positioned in the patient's oral cavity and might cause discomfort to the patient or form a risk to the patient's dental hygiene. On the other hand, the dental clinics have to purchase x-ray films that match the model and brand of the oral and dental imaging equipment they currently use. In the event the purchased x-ray films are wrong in size or specifications and could not be used with the existing oral and dental imaging equipment, a lot of money will be wasted.